The Newsletter for Marshall University
April 11, 2012

Five successful business leaders, including a former interim
Marshall University president, an outgoing dean and three CEOs,
will be inducted into MU’s Business Hall of Fame on Tuesday,
April 17.

The induction reception and ceremony will take place at the
Marshall University Foundation Hall, home of the Erickson Alumni
Center, on the Huntington campus. The celebration will begin
with a reception at 6:15 p.m. and an awards ceremony at 7 p.m.

This year’s inductees are Michael J. Farrell, managing member
with Farrell, White & Legg PLCC and a former interim president
of Marshall; Lynne M. Fruth, president and chairman of the board
of Fruth Pharmacy; Dr. Chong W. Kim, dean of Marshall’s College
of Business and owner of Master Kim’s Tae Kwon Do School;
Clarence E. Martin, chief executive officer and chief financial
officer of State Electric Supply Company; and Joseph L. Williams
Jr., chairman and CEO of BASIC Supply Company Inc., director of
First Sentry Bank and director of Energy Services of America.

The Hall of Fame honors those in the business community who
have outstanding records of long-standing achievement in their
career fields. It is the most distinguished honor granted by the
College of Business.

Following this year’s ceremony, the Hall of Fame will have 85
members, dating back to the first inductions in 1994. Here is a
brief look at each of the new inductees:

Michael
J. Farrell graduated from the Marshall University College of
Business in 1969. He has had a distinguished career as a lawyer,
higher education leader and businessman. As a student at
Marshall, he played the university mascot “Marco” and served as
student body president.

Farrell has served as managing member of the firm now known
as Farrell, White & Legg PLLC during its 17-year existence. He
currently is serving his second term with Marshall’s Board of
Governors. In 2005, he served as interim president of Marshall
University.

Lynne
Morrow Fruthgraduated
magna cum laude from West Virginia University with a degree in
education and plans for a career in public education and
coaching. During the 1980s she found her niche in education –
working with the most difficult and challenging children.

Fruth completed
her master’s degree in education in 1995 at Marshall. She was
elected chairman of the board of the company business, Fruth
Pharmacy, in May 2009, and began full-time employment at Fruth
that summer. The company maintains a workforce of about 650
employees.

Chong
W. Kim, Ph.D., who was born in northern China but grew up in
Seoul, came to Marshall in 1977. He served as head of the
Management, Marketing and MIS divisions for 24 years, and
currently is dean of the College of Business. He will retire
this summer.

A Taekwondo 9th degree black belt, Kim opened Master Kim’s
Tae Kwon Do School in Huntington in 1984. He taught Taekwondo in
the Adjutant General Korean Army School before he came to the
U.S. in 1968. Currently, he is serving as the national vice
president for the U.S. Taekwondo Grandmasters Society and
chairman of the selection committee of the society’s Hall of
Fame.

Clarence
E. Martin, a 1967 Marshall graduate, was hired as controller
at State Electric in 1972, became chief financial officer in
1977 and was named chief executive officer in 1994. When he
began working at State Electric, there were two branches of the
company—Huntington and Dunbar—with a total of 41 employees.
Today, the business has grown to 42 branches in six states, with
more than 700 employees.

Martin is also executive vice president of Service Wire
Company, a worldwide manufacturer of wire and cable, and
executive vice president of Arthur’s Enterprises, which was
formed in 1986 to provide organizational structure for the
continued growth of State Electric and Service Wire. The
combined entities employ more than 850 people in eight states.

Joseph
L. Williams Jr., a former member of Marshall’s Board of
Governors, received his bachelor’s degree in finance from
Marshall University in 1978. He serves as chairman and chief
executive officer of Basic Supply Company Inc., which he founded
in 1977, and is on the board of directors of Energy Services of
America Corp.

Williams was one of the organizers and is a director of First
Sentry Bank in Huntington. He was chairman, president and chief
executive officer of Consolidated Bank & Trust Co. in Richmond,
Va., from 2007 until it merged with Premier Financial Bancorp
Inc. in 2009.